“Do you want to have a positive impact on the world?” The line that opens AUC’s website appears utterly grotesque in light of the events of March 25th. As AUC alumni, we are saddened to learn that our university, which markets itself to prospective students by leveraging their desire to contribute to social and environmental justice, has allowed police to operate violently on its premises and against its own students who were calling for an end to the full-fledged genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

Students, lecturers, and researchers all over the world are demanding that their institutions cut ties with the military industry and with Israeli institutions, whose role in the occupation and apartheid imposed on Palestinians for decades has been documented extensively. Disrupting the business-as-usual life of institutions which collaborate with Israeli universities and companies is the least that can be done in the face of the living hell that Israel is inflicting on the Palestinian people of Gaza. We are disheartened to discover that instead of listening to its students and supporting their demands for an academic boycott of Israel, the AUC administration has allowed for police to intervene on campus. We cannot help but interpret what happened on March 25th as a clear indication that the institution’s commitment to its values is nothing but empty rhetoric.

As AUC alumni, we express our highest solidarity with the students who stood on the picket line, and we fully support their demands for a complete cessation of all ties between the UvA, the VU, and Israeli institutions. We strongly condemn the AUC administration for allowing police violence to take place on campus, but we are certain that such a regrettable display of repressive violence, instead of silencing the students, will only make them louder in their voices and more determined in their struggle.

FREE PALESTINE